Until The End // Phan

Chapter 4

*Phil's Pov*

We followed the woman back to a parking garage where we watched her hijack a Toyota in about a minute and a half. The garage was swarmed with people trying to leave the city, just like we were. Luckily, everyone in there was alive and not trying to kill everyone.

I managed to stay calm during all of this and use my head, unlike Dan who was reaching his breaking point. Everytime I looked at him, he had his eyes closed, trying to hide from the situation around us. He looked like he was about to have a panic attack. I just wanted to hold him and tell him everything was going to be ok, but I couldn't lie to him. Nothing was ever going to be ok again, but I couldn't tell him that. We had to have hope, even if it was false hope. Everything counts.

We somehow managed to get out of the parking garage without running anyone over, and we made it to the main road before the cars starting lining the streets.

The ride was silent. Not even the woman said anything. We still had no idea what her name was, but I didn't have the energy in me to ask. Dan rested his head on my shoulder, not moving a single limb once, although he was awake the whole time. I'm not sure how long the ride was, but it felt like hours. It was agonizing, waiting to reach safety. Waiting to see where we were going. I didn't want to ask, just like I didn't want to ask her name. The silence was relaxing, though. It made everything feel ok, Like nothing was wrong. It made things seem normal.

I looked down at Dan who was staring straight out the windshield, blinking every few seconds, but still not shifting his eyes in any other direction. I brushed the hair away from his eyes, placing a soft kiss on his forehead. He still didn't move. He was broken.

After a long, quiet car ride, we finally pulled into an uphill driveway that let to a small house with a front porch and a swing. We drove up to the side of the house in front of a one car garage. Behind the garage, I could see a porch in the back of the house that overlooked a huge lake. I could just barely see the end of it where it flowed into a river, then snaked behind the open woods. The house and garage were a matching shade of blue that seemed right for the scenery. I would have been able to see everything better if it wasn't so dark. It was quite isolated, as I hadn't seen a single building for the past ten miles or so.

I looked down at Dan, his head in the same position it had been in the entire time. He was still awake, but I didn't have the heart to tell him to move, So we just sat there.

"Well?" The woman asked through our open window after she got out of the car. Dan finally lifted his head and looked at her.

"Your name.. we never got your name." Dan's sudden words startled me, making me wonder how he could snap out of his condition so quickly.

"Right. I'm uh- I'm Alex. I'll explain all of this when I get you two inside."

The both of us said nothing as we climbed out of the car and followed Alex into the house. She never even asked us our names.

We stepped inside, Dan grasping my hand as we did so. "You might want to sit down." She motioned us towards the left, the livingroom, as she sat on the edge of the coffee table sitting in front of the couch. To our right was a wall, a staircase leading upstairs lining it. Ahead of us was a hallway which led to the kitchen.

We slowly stepped into the livingroom, making our way to the couch in front of her. I sat down first, Dan following, sitting almost on top of me as usual.

"So um.. I don't think I got your names either." She crossed her legs and put her hands on the table behind her, leaning back.

"I'm.. ahem.." I cleared my throat. "I'm Phil. This is Dan." It was silent for a few seconds.

"Ok. So. How much do you guys know? You know, about all of this?" She was stumbling over her words. She looked scared, her green eyes glistening. She was tall, not as tall as Dan and I, but tall. She had long dark hair and and was wearing a light army green tank top with short black jean shorts.

"Not much" Dan spoke up again. "Just that it's basically The Walking Dead irl." He actually said 'irl' out loud and I could tell he regretted it for once as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. I decided not to say anything.

"Sort of. Ok this is going to take a while" She sighed and sat closer to the edge of the table, lifting her hands from the surface.

"So, again, I'm Alex. Alex Ross. My father is a scientist. Was a scientist." She paused and looked down at the ground, sorrow in her eyes from a clearly recent loss. "He worked at the Center for Disease Control. Basically, a few months ago, my father, among others, was studying the decay of the human body. When they were studying the decomposition of the brain, they found something that I'm not exactly sure how to explain." She stood up from the coffee table and started to pace around the room, using her hands as she spoke, much like Dan.

"I don't remeber the details, but I do remember that it was making the brain cells grow at a rapid rate. I guess that whatever it was triggered the brain's natural instinct or something. This caused the body to, you know, reanimate. So, The Walking Dead got most of it right, except for some of the scientific details I don't understand." She stopped pacing and looked towards us.

"So what happened to your father?" Dan's voice made me shift in my seat. I bumped his elbow, making him realize that his question was rude. He ignored my signal.

"He um.. well when the body reanimated, my father's friend was in the room, and it bit him. It was late at night, he was working late. My father was the first to show up the next morning, and he brought me to work with him so he could show me what was happening. He knew this was coming. After he explained everything to me, he left me in the break room while he went into the lab. Thats when he found them, and they attacked him." A tear rolled down her cheek. I wanted to get up and hug her for comfort, but I didn't even know her.

"They used my fathers body for testing, to find out what the virus was and to find cures and stuff. They didn't find crap."

We were all quiet. There was nothing left to be said. Of course there were questions to be asked but now isn't the time. I was just happy that all the chaos was over. It isn't really over though. It never will be. Right now, we're just in the eye of the storm, and it's only a matter of time before we get sucked right back into the whirlwind of shit that is the end of the world.